Schools

The Morgan Political Club Wants You!

Club Works To Boost Recruitment And Voter Registration

Sheldon Potesak is free of the plastic veneer slicked on trained politicians. He is earnest and organic in his interactions—showing all his cards in casual conversation.

Potesak, a political hopeful, is still young. This 2010 graduate of The Morgan School, now a communications major at Texas Tech University, still believes in the political system.

When he turned 18, as with most young political enthusiasts, Potesak registered to vote. He also enlisted as a volunteer with Clinton’s Democratic headquarters.

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“Last year, I [called] local residents to remind them to vote,” said Potesak. “[People] can help out at the political headquarters in town. Anyone can go to the Democrat or Republican headquarters and help out, especially at this next election for Clinton.”  

He hopes to intern with a local politician in the coming months.

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Potesak’s faith in politics is a breath of fresh air in this age of skepticism, pandering, and punditry. It is one shared by members of his former stomping grounds: Morgan's Political Club.

The Political Club is a student-run organization that promotes open dialogue over a variety of political topics. Founded in 2005, the club hosts debates and lectures featuring local politicians.

It has worked with the local public access television station to film and rebroadcast debates from town hall. Previous speakers have included State Senator Eileen Daily, Selectman Thomas Vicino, First Selectman Willie Fritz, Governor Dannel Malloy, and gubernatorial candidate Ed Lamont.

The club is led by English teacher Eric Bergman and meets once a week for an hour after school.

“We’ll have a club meeting before a debate and come up with questions [for politicians], narrow them down,” said Potesak. “About five students will be on stage asking the questions and one student will time.”

The Political Club has previously sponsored debates for state representative and state senator election campaigns.

“[Politicians are] not talking to their regular crowd,” said Potesak on Political Club debates. “They’re talking to 14, 15, 16, 17, 18-year-olds. So they’re trying to keep it as simple as possible [and] discuss what’s going on in town.”

The club prides itself on discussing issues not typically addressed in mainstream media. Previous topics of debate have included land development, taxes and construction of a new high school.

“One speaker who sticks out is Cliff Thornton, who talked about the legalization of marijuana,” said Potesak. “He basically went forward to say that the only drug we should legalize is pot…that we should decriminalize it...that the age to legally purchase it should be 21 years.”  

The club also organizes and funds its own field trips. Students have taken tours of the state capitol building and legislative offices and the Connecticut superior courthouse.

Potesak joined the Political Club his junior year in high school and served as its president the following year.

“Junior year of high school I felt like I had to start getting ready for college. I had to join a club. I had to have some activities to put on my college resume,” he said. “When I joined it, it was a small club [12 members].”

Potesak’s involvement in the club ramped up his senior year, after getting the lay of the land.

“I felt like the club had great potential and I could get a lot of great speakers,” he explained. “The first two weeks, we literally had five to six kids.”

The club now stands at 20 members, still a modest showing for a high school club, but one with signs of improvement. 

“When you’re in high school, politics isn’t on your mind,” said Potesak. “This is one of the clubs that’s harder to get people involved. No one wants to sit down and listen to politics.”

“I feel like if we can get more people to sit down and listen to ideas, we can recruit more people, and more people will get involved,” he continued. “No one really knows about this club yet.”

Beyond challenges in recruitment, the club has met resistance from speakers themselves. Politicians feel the club is too left-leaning, as its largest turnouts have been for Green Party members, like Thornton.

“Some of their issues were, first, that they thought we were left-leaning,” Potesak said. “Second, that they were talking to such a young crowd and they didn’t need to be there because we’re not registered voters.”

Another issue is, of course, lack of attendance. Pulling in such small numbers doesn’t merit an appearance for some politicians located outside of the region.

“If you’re a speaker and you’re coming from Hartford to Clinton and there’s only ten students in front of you, what’s the point?” Potesak asked.  

This former president of would-be politicians still serves the Political Club in an advisory role - he attends as many meetings as he can during school breaks and holidays, keeps the conversation going with the club's advisor and helps out with debates.

“Joining the club is a great way to get your feet into politics,” Potesak observed. “You get to meet high-ranking politicians and take in their knowledge.”

“The Political Club set me up with my future goals in the knowledge I got,” he continued. “[It] gave me the extra squeeze to get in to a tier one school.”

“You get to hear all these different views,” he said, “[and] you get to decide at a [young] age, what kind of views you [want to follow].”

Potesak assured that students could set the pace for their involvement, but might be interested in participating in future campaigns related to the upcoming election. The Political Club intends to host the first selectman debate in the coming months and ramp up efforts for voter registration.

“Every year we have a low turnout for voting,” said Potesak. “We have 9,000 registered voters [in Clinton and] we only get a small amount [voting].”

“Students who are 18 need to register to vote,” he said. “It takes two seconds to register.”

For more information on the Morgan School Political Club email ebergman@clinton.org


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